An Information Space for Partial Length Perception in Dynamic Touch

Two experiments evaluated change in the perception of an environmental property (object length) in each of 3 perceptual modalities (vision, audition, and haptics) when perceivers were provided with the opportunity to experience the same environmental property by means of an additional perceptual modality (e.g., haptics followed by vision, vision followed by audition, or audition followed by haptics). Experiment 1 found that (a) posttest improvements in perceptual consistency occurred in all 3 perceptual modalities, regardless of whether practice included experience in an additional perceptual modality and (b) posttest improvements in perceptual accuracy occurred in haptics and audition but only when practice included experience in an additional perceptual modality. Experiment 2 found that learning curves in each perceptual modality could be accommodated by a single function in which auditory perceptual learning occurred over short time scales, haptic perceptual learning occurred over middle time scales, and visual perceptual learning occurred over long time scales. Analysis of trial-to-trial variability revealed patterns of long-term correlations in all perceptual modalities regardless of whether practice included experience in an additional perceptual modality.     

Dynamic and Static Balancing Ability of Preschool Children

Performance differences in dynamic and static balance ability of 150 preschool Ss aged 3,4, and 5 yr. were studied. Ss performed 4 balance-beam tasks and 2 balance-board tasks. An Age by Sex (3 × 2) factorial, design employing both univariate and multivariate ANOVA techniques were the statistics used. For both dynamic and static balance Age was highly significant, and the use of multivariate ANOVA indicated significant sex differences on the static balance tasks. The appropriateness of multivariate techniques where more than one dependent variable is measured on the same population was discussed, and the need to take into account the relationship between these variables when analyzing the data was noted.     

Speech Perception in Children With Specific Reading Difficulties (Dyslexia)

Many experimental studies over the last two decades have suggested that groups of children who suffer significant delay in reading also show a weakness in phoneme discrimination and identification. In order to look further at the relation between type of reading deficit, auditory acuity, and speech discrimination, a group of 13 children with specific reading difficulty (SRD), 12 chronological-age controls, and 12 reading-age controls were tested on a battery of speech-perceptual, psychoacoustic, and reading tests. A sub-group of children with Specific Reading Difficulty (SRD) were poor at speech discrimination tests, whereas the rest of the SRD group performed within norms. For this sub-group, discrimination performance was particularly poor for consonant contrasts differing in a single feature that was not acoustically salient, and problems were encountered with nasal and fricative contrasts as well as with stop contrasts. These children did not differ from controls in their performance on non-speech psychoacoustic tasks. An evaluation is made of the reported phonemic awareness skills of beginning readers with regard to speech-processing issues which may help in understanding what factors are important in reading development.     

Rachel Stutsman,Mental Measurement of Preschool Children (Helen Lois Koch)

Abstract

Rachel Stutsman. Mental Measurement of Preschool Children. Yonkers, N. Y.: World Book Co., 1931. Pp. x+368.     

Self-Control and Impulsiveness in Preschool Children

The Psychological Record - Eleven girls and nine boys, aged 41–59 months, chose repeatedly, under controlled laboratory conditions, between one sticker available immediately and three...     

Disjunctive Concept Utilization in Preschool Children

Summary

Twenty-four children, eight each in three age groups, were asked to “play a game” which required them to utilize disjunctive concepts such as “blue or car.” The disjunctive concepts used were the nine which can be formed by combining one value from among three possibilities on the color dimension (green, blue, red) with one value from among three possibilities on the form dimension (car, boat, airplane). The task consisted of 18 five-choice trials with each of the nine disjunctive concepts represented twice—once with the color mentioned first and once with the form mentioned first. Ss were required to pick the positive instance card. All three groups performed significantly better than chance (ps. < .0001) on the task. A significant relation between age and performance on this task was found (Rho = .65, p < .05). There were no sex differences. The results are discussed in relation to task variables and an associative view of cognitive development.     

An Observational Technique for Preschool Children

Summary

A method for direct observational study of early peer-social and objectdirect behavior for human subjects was designed to be articulated with techniques widely used in studies of social behavior in infrahuman primates.

Occurrence of behavior fitting the definitions of each of six categories of object behavior and nine categories of social behavior is noted once during each 15-second interval. The number of recorded intervals in a 15-minute session provides the basic scoring unit.

Observer reliabilities were estimated from paired data and four observers. Thirty-eight Negro and white children ages three through five years were observed in three child play groups. Median reliabilities of .95 (range .63 to .98) and .81 (range .69 to .94) were obtained for object and social behavior categories respectively.     

Implicit Knowledge of Grammatical Gender in Preschool Children

The study aimed at investigating the role of nominal gender in animal categorization in preschoolers. Given the regularities characterizing gender system, at both syntactical and morphological level, Italian language is suitable to address this issue. In three experiments, participants were asked to classify pictures of animals as male or female. Half stimuli had names of feminine gender and half of masculine gender. In Experiment 1, Italian speaking adults and preschoolers classified animals according to the nominal gender. This effect was not found with English speaking participants (Experiment 2) but confirmed with 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old Italian-speaking children (Experiment 3). These results showed an implicit knowledge of grammatical gender in preschoolers, suggesting that semantic processing may be modulated by linguistic information.     

Das-Naglieri认知评估系统（中文版）在学前儿童样本中的结构验证

本研究以246名5-6岁幼儿园儿童（男101名,女145名）为研究对象,考察基于智力PASS理论开发的Das-Naglieri 认知评估系统（5-7岁版）在中国学前儿童中的适用性,对评估系统中的12个任务进行了内在一致性信度评估,以幼儿早期数学能力测试作为参考评估其校标效度,并采用验证性因素分析对评估系统的结构效度进行评估。结果发现,该版本评估系统具有较好的信度和校标效度,并且很好地拟合了PASS模型。     

3～6岁幼儿对攻击性行为的认知评价分析

通过故事评定法分析了3～6岁幼儿对攻击性行为的认知评价,结果表明:①此年龄段的幼儿对攻击性行为的认知已经达到一定的成熟度,开始考虑攻击性行为的条件与方式;②幼儿对攻击性行为的认知评价存在一定的性别差异,主要表现在受到言语侵犯时的攻击性行为;③对攻击性行为的认知评价的年龄差异突出表现在5岁与6岁之间.④采用蒙特梭利教育法的实验班幼儿,对攻击性行为比非实验班幼儿评价得更消极.     

Dyadic Versus Individual Storytelling by Preschool Children

A constructive model of recall and communication (D. Edwards & D. Middleton, 1986) and certain whole-word approaches to learning (C. Pontecorvo & C. Zucchermaglio, 1989) were evaluated in conjunction with an investigation of the benefits of joint storytelling on children's cognitive processes. Preschoolers (N = 36, aged 30-62 months) were prompted to compose a story, working with a classmate (during which they talked together freely and generated a mutual narrative) or individually. Findings revealed that, although dyadically generated stones were longer, containing significantly more words, propositions, and additive conjunctions, stories told by individuals contained proportionally more logically connected statements and greater use of the past tense. Moreover, compared with dyadic stories, individually generated narratives contained fewer alterations of the protagonist.     

Kant on Impenetrability,Touch, and the Causal Content of Perception

It is well known that Kant claims that causal judgments, including judgments about forces, must have an a priori basis. It is less well known that Kant claims that we can perceive the repulsive force of bodies (their impenetrability) through the sense of touch. Together, these claims present an interpretive puzzle, since they appear to commit Kant to both affirming and denying that we can have perceptions of force. My first aim is to show that both sides of the puzzle have deep roots in Kant's philosophy. My second aim is to present three potential solutions to the puzzle and show that each faces problems.     

汉语学龄前儿童正字法意识的发展

本研究选择北京地区幼儿园3岁、4岁、5岁儿童各31、48、33名, 采用单部件意识测验和部件位置及功能意识测验系统探查了学龄前儿童的正字法意识各个层面的发展状况。单部件意识测验包括部件替换、部件缺失和部件旋转三个部分; 部件位置及功能意识测验分为假字和非字两个部分, 而非字又包括两形非字和形声非字。结果发现单部件意识测验中, 5岁组儿童在部件替换水平上的得分显著高于3岁组儿童, 而3岁组与4岁组、4岁组与5岁组儿童之间无显著差异; 部件缺失和部件旋转水平上, 三个年龄段的儿童的得分表现出明显的增长趋势。部件位置及功能意识测验中, 假字得分在三个年龄段之间无显著差异; 非字得分随年龄增长显著提高。这些结果表明, 单部件意识在学前期处于不断发展的阶段, 其中对部件替换的非字的拒绝能力发展较早, 部件缺失和部件旋转非字的拒绝能力发展较晚; 部件位置及功能意识在学前期已经开始发展, 3岁儿童已经具有假字符合正字法规则的认识, 但对非字违反部件位置合法性和功能完整性的认识直到4岁左右才开始萌芽, 5岁还未成熟。